Skyrim loremaster: Bethesda was too protective of Elder Scrolls to let anyone make a New Vegas-style spin-off

Kurt Kuhlmann, lead Skyrim developer and former Elder Scrolls loremaster, says Bethesda never seriously considered handing the series to an outside studio — the way it once did with Obsidian and Fallout: New Vegas — because Todd Howard and the studio were simply too protective of the franchise.

Kuhlmann made the comments on the FRVR podcast, explaining that Fallout: New Vegas — widely regarded as the best entry in that series — sparked an ongoing debate about whether Obsidian or Bethesda makes better Fallout games. That split community sentiment, with a vocal camp arguing Obsidian should just take over the franchise entirely. Howard, Kuhlmann says, didn't want the same thing to happen with Elder Scrolls. "Todd, from my time there, he is very protective of it," Kuhlmann said. He also credited The Elder Scrolls Online with taking some pressure off the long wait for a mainline sequel — ESO kept new content flowing and, for a large chunk of the playerbase, has become their primary Elder Scrolls experience.

Kuhlmann left Bethesda in 2023, so his read on the studio reflects a specific window of time. Since then, the landscape has shifted considerably. Xbox has restructured its publishing arm with a sharper focus on its biggest franchises, Fallout and Elder Scrolls among them. Obsidian — the very studio behind New Vegas — has now been folded under the Bethesda umbrella and is reportedly working on a new Fallout game. Whether that proximity eventually opens the door to an Elder Scrolls spin-off remains an open question, though Bethesda president Jill Braff has told staff that Obsidian's creative identity and strengths will stay intact after the reorganisation.

For now, Elder Scrolls 6 remains deep in development with no release window in sight, nearly 15 years after Skyrim launched. If Obsidian does eventually get a crack at Tamriel, the New Vegas debate will almost certainly start all over again.